History of the UFC 06.09.08: UFC XLII: Sudden Impact
Posted by Matt McEwen on 06.09.2008
Long before he was getting creamed by guys who should be fighting at middleweight, Matt Hughes was the most dominant champion in UFC history. He faces a stern test in future lightweight champion Sean Sherk as the UFC debuts in Miami.
The Octagon headed to South Florida for the first time on April 25, 2003, as Miami and the Continental Airlines Arena plays host to UFC XLII: Sudden Impact. Nice card for the debut too, with a Welterweight title fight headlining as Matt Hughes defends against the undefeated Sean Sherk, Robbie Lawler tries to continue his march to superstardom by going through Pete Spratt and a couple of future stars debut to boot.
Before the show, there were three unaired prelims as Canadian David Loiseau (8-2) knocked out Mark Weir (9-2, 1-1 UFC), Richard Crunkilton (9-0) lost for the first time his career as Hermes Franca (6-0) took a unanimous decision victory, and Dave Strasser (22-3-4) also took a unanimous decision over Romi Aram (6-0), both the last two in battles of debuting fighters.
As for the show tonight, no Mike Goldberg, so Joe Rogan is handling the play by play duties with Phil Baroni along for colour. He’s funny for about 5% of the show, annoying for 95%. That’s not a good ratio, and let’s just say that the announcing is not the strength of the show.
Some odds for the evening from Danny Sheridan, which only go to show that he knows very little about MMA:
Matt Hughes 5-1 over Sean Sherk
Robbie Lawler 4-1 over Pete Spratt
Sean Alvarez even Cabbage Correira
Evan Tanner 8-5 over Rich Franklin
Genki Sudo 6-5 over Duane Ludwig
On to the show...
Lightweights
Duane Ludwig (5’10, 155lbs, 9-2)
Vs.
Genki Sudo (5’9, 155lbs, 7-3, 1-1)
A couple of quick notes on this one. First, this is the first show where all the fighters get their own entrance music. Most of it is awful, and done by bands that appear to be signed to ZUFFA records. Glad that was a short lived venture. Secondly, Sudo’s entrance is just plain weird, in a ridiculously entertaining kind of way. You’ll have to see it to fully understand what I mean by that.
And finally, Ludwig is coming into this fight as the linear lightweight champion as he knocked Jens Pulver out in his fight previous to this one.
Round 1
Sudo opens the fight by walking backwards to the center of the cage and does the robot. Seriously. Once he gets going, he shoots and takes Ludwig down, and puts him up against the fence, but then pulls him to the center. That usually goes the other way, but ok. Sudo controls on top for a god chunk of the round, spending time in full and ½ guard and mount. He eventually tries an armbar, but Ludwig rolls through and is able to get back to his feet. They clinch and Ludwig is able to land a few knees and score the surprising takedown himself as Sudo sort of pulls guard. Ludwig jumps right back up and throws a few big body shots with Sudo still on the ground as the round ends.
10-9 Sudo as controlling the first 4 minutes of the round outweighs the damage Ludwig did at the end.
Round 2
Ludwig liked the result of the body shots, and starts off with some more. Sudo shoots, but has to pull guard, where he’s able to stifle and offense by Ludwig, and we get the stand up. Ludwig’s left hook is starting to land regularly, and a flying knee to the body really hurts Sudo. Sudo intiates the clinch and then rolls for kneebar, but can’t get it. Back up, and this time Sudo scores the takedown, but Ludwig holds on for the end of the round.
10-9 for Ludwig as his striking started to take over there.
Round 3
Sudo comes out with a side kick to the gut, then shoots for another takedown. He’s a little more active this time with good punches and busts Ludwig’s nose open. Sudo pounds away, and McCarthy stops the fight to give the doctor a chance to look at Ludwig’s nose. Good break for him as he gets a stand up and the doctor lets him go. ON the restart Ludwig gets really aggressive. He controls a takedown attempt but gets locked into Sudo’s guard. He pounds his way out and gets back up, then starts dropping big body shots with Sudo still down. Keep’s land them and Sudo’s eye swells shut. The round ends as Ludwig punishes Sudo.
10-9 for Ludwig as he stole the round at the end there, and the fight in my book. Split decision win for Ludwig, as all three judges score it 29-28, but one gives it to Sudo. He’ll need to work on his ground game if he wants to survive in the UFC though. Maybe he knew that though, as he wouldn’t return for three years.
Light Heavyweights
Ritch Franklin (5’11, 204lbs, 9-0)
Vs.
Evan Tanner (6’, 199lbs, 27-3, 6-1)
This Franklin’s UFC debut, and you can tell they wanted to see what he had right off the bat taking on the always tough Tanner. He comes out with Jeremy Horn in his corner, but no Jorge Gurgel. My wife cries.
For his part, Tanner is still with Team Quest at this point, and is sporting the cue ball hairstyle.
And finally, both of these guys are smaller light heavyweights, but Tanner coming in 6lbs under the limit shows just how small he really is.
Round 1
Tanner’s game plan is obvious from the start as he wants to clinch, but Franklin avoids and lands a decent high kick. That doesn’t deter Tanner though, as he keeps trying for the clinch and throwing knees. Trying to grab leaves himself open though, and Franklin takes advantage with crisp striking and knocks Tanner out with a left uppercut/right hook combo. Impressive KO debut win for Franklin. Tanner’s not done, but this is the fight that makes him decide to move down to 185.
Quick promo for UFC XLIII, and it looks like I’ll have a good show for you next week as we kick off the Couture/Liddell rivalry. That will be for the interim 205lb title since Tito is off somewhere whining about pay and avoiding the hell out of Chuck Liddell.
Heavyweights<
Cabbage Corriera (6’2, 265lbs. 9-4, 0-1)
Vs.
Sean Alvarez (6’, 229lbs, 4-2)
Alvarez is a Renzo Gracie black belt, and they guy is ripped. The only problem is that he’s giving up close to 40lbs to Cabbage, which is going to make scoring the takedown difficult if Cabbage has any sort of takedown defense at all. Since he comes in with Chuck Liddell in his corner, I’ll bet that he does.
Round 1
Alvarez opens up with some hard leg kicks, which is a good idea against the cement headed Cabbage. The only problem is that Alvarez has a bad habit of dropping his right hand low when he throws the right kick, and Cabbage makes him pay with a nice left hook. They clinch for a second, but then they separate and Cabbage lands some good shots. The rest of the round is Alvarez shooting, Cabbage sprawling and throwing body shots.
10-9 for Cabbage as Alvarez could get nothing going at all.
Round 2
Left hooks by Cabbage as they start to land a lot and are hurting Alvarez. Even still, he’s finally able to score the takedown. The only problem he’s too tired/small to hold Cabbage down, and the big man is right back up. At this point, and pardon my crudeness, Cabbage essentially pounds the shit out of Alvarez and forces McCarthy to step in and stop the fight. Big KO win for Cabbage as he gets his first win in the Octagon. For Alvarez, this would be his last fight as he retired afterwards. Welterweights
Robbie Lawler (5’11, 170lbs, 7-0, 3-0)
Vs.
Pete Spratt (5’10, 170, 11-5, 1-1)
Lawler comes into this with a lot of hype behind him as the next big thing, but Spratt represents a step up in quality of opponent as he is a very good, technical striker. That should make this an interesting stand up war.
Round 1
They size each other up a bit, then land simultaneous side kicks. Lawler follows up with the takedown. Spratt pops up, but Lawler picks him up and slams him. You can tell he’s been training with Hughes. He mounts Spratt, then takes his back, but Spratt is able to pop right back up and hurts Lawler with a high kick. Back to the clinch and Spratt lands a low knee. McCarthy steps in and Lawler ususes a good chunk of his five minutes while a point is deducted from Spratt. ON the restart, Spratt lands and inside leg kick that really hurts Lawler and has him walking a bit funny. They clinch, then Spratt surprises him with a hip throw into mount, but time runs out before he can do much damage.
Spratt steals the round at the end, so I’d score it 9-9.
Round 2
Spratt looks a lot fresher starting out. Big kick to the body hurts Lawler, and he clinches. He lands some good knees in there and Spratt ends up with a cut over his right eye. They call the doctor in, but they let the fight go.
On the restart another body kick by Spratt lands. Lawler moves back and then lunges in with a punch. He pulls back quickly and waves off the fight and submits. Spratt wins by odd submission as it turns out that Lawler dislocated his hip. He reacted funny to the inside leg kick earlier...not sure if that could dislocate a hip, but it did bug him. So that’s Lawler’s first loss, and the visual of the verbal submission and the wave off really takes a lot of steam out of his sails.
After this fight, Spratt was offered a welterweight title fight, but turned it down. He felt he wasn’t quite ready for that level of competition, so he turned it down. Not the best move, as the next time he showed up on anything UFC related was TUF IV: The Comeback Welterweight Title
Matt Hughes (5’9, 170lbs, 32-3, 6-1)
Vs.
Sean Sherk (5’6, 168lbs, 22-0-1, 3-0)
We see both guys training. Sherk is a small tank at 170lbs, but he is a bit undersized.
Hughes, meanwhile, is Hughes.
I don’t see how anyone really would have given Sherk much of a legit chance here. While he is undeniably tough, he’s essentially Hughes’ slightly less talented little brother. Good wrestler, not as good as Hughes. Strong, not as strong as Hughes. Good ground and pound, not as good as Hughes.
Round 1
Hughes shoots in under a punch and puts Sherk on his back immediately. He passes to ½ guard and mauls form the top for a while. Sherk gets busted over his right eye, but he is able to shoot up off the ground for a second before Hughes takes him back down and pounds away with elbows to finish the round out.
10-8 for Hughes as he dominated there. Eddie Bravo – doing the scoring for the broadcast – agrees with me.
Round 2
They box a little bit to start. Nothing more exciting than two wrestlers boxing. Hughes stand up is odd to say the least, as he leaps in with his punches. Eventually, he shots in and takes Sherk down. Repeat Round 1. They get stood up for a second, but Hughes takes him right back down and rides out the round.
10-9 this time for Hughes as at least Sherk got a few punches in early. 20-17 overall.
Round 3
It’s Sherk that shoots this time, but Hughes is able to sprawl and push him off. A second shot is successful though. Repeat the first two rounds, but exchange the fighters. The only difference is that Hughes tries for a kimura from the bottom. A late stand up leads to a second takedown by Sherk.
10-9 Sherk. Would have been 10-8 except for the kimura attempt really, but a gutsy showing by Sherk gets him back into the fight at least. 29-27 Hughes overall.
Round 4
Sherk comes in behind some strikes and shoots, but this time Hughes sprawls and ends up with the takedown himself. Repeat round 1, but add in a short time in the mount.
10-8 for Hughes again as he reasserts his physical dominance and takes a 39-35 overall lead.
Round 5
Sherk catches an early kick by Hughes and tries a single. He does get the takedown eventually, but eats a few punches in the process. He tries to pound away out of ½ guard, but it’s not very effective this time around. They get stood up with two minutes left. Sherk shoots, but Hughes controls out of the sprawl and ends up on top. He pounds out the round, the fight and the win.
10-9 round for Hughes, giving him the fight 49-44 in my book. Bravo scores it 48-46.
The judges score it 48-45, 48-47 and 49-46, giving the unanimous decision victory to Hughes. It wasn’t the most exciting fight, but it was yet another dominant performance by Hughes in his fourth title defense. Post fight, he calls out Frank Trigg and Pete Spratt.
Not a bad show, but it was missing the sizzle of having a “can’t miss” type fight on hand. That’s won’t be a problem next time with Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture headlining.
And, in case you ever want to read my thoughts on MMA that is more recent that five years ago, check out my new blog at McEwen MMA. See ya there hopefully!
The 411: Like I said, no real stand out fights, but nothing particularly awful either. Ludwig and Sudo get the fight of the night, and it's kind of disappointing that the 155lb division is on the way out for a while.
